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All cowherds are popularly supposed to be cattle lifters, and a putwarrie after he has got over the stage of infancy, and has been indoctrinated into all the knavery that his elders can teach him, is supposed to belong to the highest category of villains. A popular proverb, much used in Behar, says: 'Unda poortee, Cowa maro! Iinnum me, billar: Bara burris me, Kayashh marige!! Humesha mara gwar!!
He is essentially a man of peace, hating physical contests, delighting in a keen argument, and an encounter with a plotting, calculating brain. Another proverb says that the putwarrie has as much chance of becoming a soldier as a sheep has of success in attacking a wolf. The lohar, or blacksmith, is very unlike his prototype at home.
There is a deal of grim bucolic humour in this, and it very nearly hits the truth. The putwarrie, then, is an important personage. Each possesses the instruments of his calling in the shape of a small brass ink-pot, and an oblong box containing a knife, pencil, and several reeds for pens.
He will try to forge receipts, he will get up false evidence that he has already paid, and the wretched putwarrie needs all his native and acquired sharpness, to hold his own. But all ryots are not alike, and when the putwarrie gets hold of some unwary and ignorant bumpkin whom he can plunder, he does plunder him systematically.
Each ryot pretty accurately remembers his own particular indebtedness, but woe to him if he pays the putwarrie the value of a 'red cent' without taking a receipt. Certainly there may be a really honest putwarrie, but I very much doubt it. The name stands for chicanery and robbery.
This is translated thus: 'When the shell is breaking kill the crow, and the wild cat at its birth. A Kayasth, writer, or putwarrie, may be allowed to live till he is twelve years old, at which time he is sure to have learned rascality. Then kill him; but kill gwars or cowherds any time, for they are invariably rascals.
The village bazaar. The landowner and his dwelling. The 'Putwarrie' or village accountant. The blacksmith. The 'Punchayiet' or village jury system. Our legal system in India. Remarks on the administration of justice.
It was indeed a favourite camping spot, and the village was inhabited by a hardy, independent set of Gwallas, Koormees, and agriculturists, with whom I was a prime favourite. I was sitting in my tent, going over some village accounts with the village putwarrie, and my gomasta.
My dogs were lying round me blinking and winking, and making an occasional futile snap at an imaginary fly or flea. It was a drowsy and peaceful scene. I was nearly dropping off to sleep, from the heat and the monotonous drone of the putwarrie, who was intoning nasally some formidable document about fishery rights and privileges. Suddenly there was a hush.
Holding the lands of the village by hereditary right, by grant, conquest, or purchase, he collects his rents from the villages through a small staff of peons, or un-official police. The accounts are kept by another important village functionary the putwarrie, or village accountant. Putwarries belong to the writer or Kayasth caste.
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